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May 17, 2011

Herb Garden

Gardening can be a real challenge if you work full-time or are planning on vacationing over the summer. However, if you would like to exercise your green thumb without worrying about harbouring the neighbourhood weeds, keep your gardening simple and focused.

Try growing a small herb garden in some plantersor in a couple of smaller pots on your windowsill. Herbs are very easy to maintain, smell great, are fun to nibble on and can really spice up your cooking. Basil, chives, oregano, thyme, parsley, cilantro, rosemary and many more simply delicious herbs can be found in your local market and usually cost very little at this time of year.

If you feel like you aren't taking advantage of all your planted specimens, try making some herb infused olive oil! Click on the read more link below for our famous infused olive oil recipe!

Infused Olive Oil

Ingredients:

Your favourite herbs and/or spices

Extra-virgin olive oil

Clean glass bottles

Directions:

Fill a medium/large size pot with extra-virgin olive oil (as much or as little as you need) and turn on the burner to a very low setting.

Put your herbs and spices (Peppercorn is almost essential!) into the oil and let simmer in the warm oil for a couple hours.

Funnel your warm oil into clean glass bottles and seal tightly.

Let your oil cool and infuse in a dark place for a couple of weeks.

Taste. If not strong enough, add more fresh herbs and let stand another week. You can either strain the oil or leave the herbs in. If you do not strain the herbs out, the flavour will become stronger as it stands.

Use infused oils in salad dressings, pasta sauces, marinades and with fresh bread to enjoy its full flavour.

Tips:

Try and use the oils within two months.

Add a couple chilli peppers to spice up the oil.

You can also add garlic, but remove the garlic cloves after a couple of days so they do not overpower the flavour of the herbs. If you leave the garlic cloves in the oil, be sure to refrigerate.